Tuesday, August 5, 2014

The Joy of Cooking



Today, after school (heute, wir lernen verben und wie in Deutsch mann sprachst “I like this or that” – “ich mag dieses oder das”) I went straight home to bake. I’d decided that I was going to make some little pizza-pasty-things for lunches for the rest of the week, so yesterday I went to the store and bought ingredients.

I had to improvise a bit, since some of the ingredients I normally would have chosen just aren’t available – or not in my price range, anyway. For example, I wanted to buy pepperoni, but ended up with corned beef slices instead. As for cheese, I normally like mozzarella or a good sharp cheddar for pizza, but mozzarella is almost always fresh here and comes in soft balls in brine, and cheddar is so rare I haven’t seen it since I left the states. Instead, I eat gouda, which is a mild, tangy cheese and quite good.

So with my corned beef, my gouda, and my jar of sauce, I set to work.


First I had to make the crust. And here’s where I ran into yet another problem – or, if you prefer, a chance for improvisation. There were no measuring cups in the house.

So I faked it. I eyeballed about two cups’ worth of flour, emptied out one of the two containers of butter (you can see one of them sitting next to the bowl in the picture) into the flour, dashed in a palm-full of salt, and set to work.

It turned out fairly well, just the right consistency, and made an airy, light dough. Honestly, I was looking forward to eating it then, it looked so fluffy and buttery.


Then came another problem: no rolling pin. I ended up using a baby bottle (there, to the left of the dough) and it worked quite well.


I sliced the dough into four portions, and (as you can see by my clever step-by-step picture above, going clockwise from the bottom right) added sliced corned beef, a slice of cheese, a dollop of sauce, and a sprinkle of garlic, then sealed the pockets and sliced a few steam-holes in the top.


Then we baked. Again, here I had a bit of a play-it-by-ear moment as I had forgotten that the oven would (of course) be Celsius, not Fahrenheit. But I muddled through, and after about 30 minutes of baking I had these:


Glorious, no? I actually made eight – the second batch turned out just as nicely – and tried one for dinner. The corned beef is an interesting addition to the Italian herbs, but actually works pretty well. And now I’ve got a bit of a baking bug, so I may do some more little pie things on Wednesday or something. I love making these little pasties – ever since I was little, pie-making has been my “thing” in the kitchen, and they always seem to turn out well. It was quite the adventure, making these entirely by guesswork – kind of like just about everything I do right now. I’m playing it by ear, and it generally works out well enough. :D

Nothing else of real import happened today, but I had thought of  a “here’s something weird about Germany” tidbit I was going to throw in…what was it…?

Ah. Yes – they call bread “toast” here. I mean, they call American-style sliced bread “toast.” Everything else is “bread” but the white or wheat bread we’d make sandwiches out of or whatever is simply called “toast” – whether you actually toast it or not. Interesting, no?

Also, I saw this:


I’ll let you come to your own conclusions about that. I really don’t think there’s anything to say about it, except perhaps a befuddled, “Whaaaaat?” :D
Good night!
~Mags

1 comment:

  1. How very clever of you to be able to improvise these delicious looking Pizza Pockets. I cannot imagine corned beef and gouda but I guess you make do with what you have. Is Anna a good cook,or does grandma do the cooking? Did you share these with the family? Hope they know this is not usual American fare. Really enjoy your posts. Keep them coming. We love and miss you.

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